Citation

Doering-Manteuffel S. Public Underst. Sci. 2011; 20(3): 292-302.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Institute of Physics in association with the Science Museum, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0963662511407029

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

For a long time rationalism and materialism were the most important ideological undercurrents of the Western world. Since the Enlightenment, in the eighteenth century, they have influenced the Age of Reason. During the past few decades, the so-called New Age originated strong counter-movements have produced a huge number of different new world-views. They are to be considered as part of the wide field of occultism, and run out in different directions. The belief in angels and in the power of fate, the communication with the dead, and the conviction of a life after death are all expressions of a desire to transcend and of a search for higher powers that watch over each person. Additionally, helpers and healers have created a marketplace to promote esoteric services. Media usage, the need to transcend and this new market interested in the magical signal a new era of consciousness in which reason and technology do not contradict mysticism and the transmission of wisdom: these go, instead, hand in hand.